Of Migrants and Men: Networks and Nations in the Millennial Bond Text
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Of Migrants and Men: Networks and Nations in the Millennial Bond Text EDWARD P. COMENTALE AND STEPHEN WATT “In this image [heimat] we, the countless million of migrants (whether guest workers, exiles, refugees, or intellectuals…) recognize ourselves not as outsiders but as vanguards of the future !ll we nomads share in the colla"se of settledness # - %ilém 'lusser, The Freedom of the Migrant: Objections to Nationalism (())*) “+he text is a fetish object and this fetish desires me +he text chooses me, b- a whole dis$ "osition of invisible screens, selective ba.es/ vocabular-, references, readability, etc.0 and, lost in the midst of a text. there is alwa-s the other, the author # - 1oland 2arthes, The Pleasure of the Text (3455) “Bond ceases to be a subject for "s-chiatr- and remains at the most a "h-siological object (exce"t for a return to "s-chic diseases in the last, unt-"ical novel in the series, The Man with the Golden Gun)…In the last "ages of Casino Royale, 'leming,in fact, renounces all "s-$ chology as the motive of narrative and decides to transfer characters and situations to the level of an objective structural strategy # - 7mberto Eco, The Role of the Reader: !xplorations in the #emiotics of Texts (3454) +hese three excer"ts suggest the intimatel- connected aims of this article on the evolution of 9ames 2ond in both contemporar- cinema and, more broadl-, the twent-$:rst centur- +hese aims, after %ilém 'lusser, might be termed assess$ ments of heimat construed not onl- as homes “encased in m-sti:cation# and Edward P. Comentale is Professor of English and Associate Vice Provost for Arts and Humanities at Indiana University, Bloomington. He, James Watt, and Skip Willman are the edit- ors of Ian Fleming and James Bond: The Cultural Politics of 007 (Indiana University Press, 2005). Stephen Watt is Provost Professor of English and Associate Vol. I, Issue 1 · Spring 2017 Dean of the School of Art and Design at Indiana University ISSN 2514-2178 Bloomington. He, Edward Comentale, and Skip Willman are DOI: 10.24877/jbs.8 the editors of Ian Fleming and James Bond: The Cultural Polit- Distributed under CC BY 4.0 UK ics of 007 (Indiana, 2005). grown “hallowed b- habit#, but also as homelands ('lusser ())*, ($<) As 1aoul =ilva ( 9avier 2ardem) taunts 2ond (>aniel ?raig), encircled b- com"uters in #$ % fall (()3(), “England +he Empire. MIA BouCre living in a ruin# Dur argument, however, focuses less on the devolution of 2ritain than on the migrant Eows and global networks that, for better or worse, vex the ver- notion of the nation-state. +hat is to sa-, in &uantum of #olace (())F), Mr GhiteCs claim while being Hues$ tioned b- @ and 2ond that the criminal organisation with which he is affiliated has "eople “ever-where# is hardl- inconsequential0 indeed, his boast is corrobor$ ated when his colleague, embedded within @IA, o"ens :re on the unsuspecting interrogators. And to combat a foe that exists ever-where, b- the :nal scene of #pectre (()36), 2ond, albeit not achieving a state of digital unadulteration akin to that of Lucy in Luc 2essonCs ()3< :lm, is nonetheless a transformed :gure who exists within digital networks that transcend ?old Gar binaries. 'or unlike "revi$ ous 2onds who, in the :lmsC :nal moments, en,o- dalliances in lifeboats or mini$ submarines not far from the gaze of M, 2ritish intelligence, or the militar- K or report for dut- (#$ fall) or announce their continuing service (&uantum of #olace) K in this scene 2ond and Madeleine =wann (J&a =e-doux) speed awa- from Lon$ don (and not in a new Aston Martin >23) either, but in a replica of the almost talismanic >26 that was destro-ed in #$ fall) +he- and the :ctional heimat where ))5 once resided could be going an-where K or ever-where +o trace this "rocess, we start with canonical and more recent 2ond novelsC construction of a recognisable home for 2ond and his readers, and then track the :lmsC destruction of these homes "ersonal, "rofessional, and "s-chical, the last of which includes instances of Dedi"alisation and re-Dedi"alisation which must similarl- be undone. In the "rocess, the ?old Gar text and its now familiar o""ositions K EastLGest, Mero/%illain K is also redacted to make room for re$ vised definitions of home, migrancy, subjectivit-, and technology introduced in the latter half of this essa- In several wa-s, we follow the lead of critics energised b- Martin ?ampbellCs Casino Ro ale (())A) K ?hristo"h Lindner, Natharine ?ox, and Oatrick Anderson, to name but three K who regard ?raig’s assum"tion of the role of ))5 as a “reimagining”, “rebirth#, or “revision# of 'leming’s famous sp- 3 In doing so, however, we Huer- the ver- binarisms that have sustained the 2ond 3 Mere we refer to ?hristoph Jindner, “Introduction,# Re'isioning ((): *ames +ond and ?asino 1o-ale, edited b- Jindner (Pew Bork/ GallEower Oress, ())4), 30 Katharine ?ox, “2ecoming 9ames 2ond/ >aniel ?raig, 1ebirth and 1efashioning Masculinit- in ?asino 1o-ale,# *ournal of Gender #tudies, (* ( (()3<), 3F<0 and Oatrick !nderson, “Neo$ con 2ond/ +he ?ultural Oolitics of #$ fall,# &uarterl Re'iew of Film and -ideo, ** (()3A)/ 3 2 International Journal of James Bond Studies · Vol. I, Issue 1 · Spring 2017 franchise for over sixt- -ears and continue to define the :lmsC critical reception +o be sure, scenes in Casino Ro ale like the chiselled ?raig emerging from the ocean in imitation of Mone- 1-der (7rsula Andress) in Dr/ No and 9inx (Malle 2err-) in Die 0nother .a , as ?ox argues (()3<, 3FF$F4), reposition 2ond as the feminine object of the male gaze; and the last two ?raig :lms do reveal the inEu$ ence of neoliberal and neoconservative thought, as !nderson argues (()3A, 6$3*) Bet, as we hope to demonstrate, in #$ fall and #pectre such gender and "olitical binaries are su"erseded b- global ca"ital, mass migration, and invasive digital networks from which the “reborn# or “resurrectedC 2ond is :nall- inseparable. Dur anal-sis requires the ,uxtaposition of such recent 2ond novels as Se$ bastian 'aulksC .e'il Ma Care (())F) and !nthon- MorowitzCs Trigger Mortis (()36) with :lms like #$ fall and #pectre, a "airing most studies of the 2ond "he$ nomenon ignore. Ge are interested in the tension between these genres, as the novels seem to extend, in content as well as form, more traditional and ritualised conceptions of home and homeland, while the :lms devise more d-namic de$ "ictions of the latter in "articular Such distinctions, we believe, are grounded in the traditions within which each form is "roduced as well as the audiences the- are intended to reach/ namel-, a limited English s"eaking and reading audience, on the one hand, and an international and "ostcolonial one, on the other Ghile traversing this terrain of 'leming and "ost$'leming texts, we "rivilege the latter for reasons "ertaining to the intertextual "eculiarities that t-"icall- emerge with an- media reboot/ :rst, their frequentl- h-"ertrophic allusions to "rior texts that re-inEect our understanding of the 2ond franchise as it once was and where it might be going; and, second, the :lmsC efforts to erase all traces of 2ondCs nuclear and extended families within a tumultuous context of migrants, refugees, and data "oints in the information networks that constitute our new realit- In other words, while, as 9ames ?hapman "uts it, “the twin "rocesses of con$ tinuit- and change# are “ke-# to the “longevit-# of the 2ond series of :lms (())3, (<F), recent novels guarantee onl- the former K an instantl- recognisable ?old Gar 2ond and a 34A)s made familiar b- its residue of Gorld Gar +wo, an emer$ gent %ietnam conEict, the nuclear Arms race, and more. +he dust ,acket for .e'il Ma Care trumpets the news that 'aulks is “Griting as Ian 'leming” (with 'lem$ ing’s name "rinted in a larger font than 'aulks’)0 the cover of Trigger Mortis ad$ vertises that “original material b- Ian 'leming” is contained within And it is. In his “!cknowledgements#, Morowitz explains his slight ap"ro"riation from an un$ realised 'leming telepla- about Rrand Orix racing (()36, *)6$A) 8ven what is ar$ guabl- the most accom"lished of these novels, Gilliam 2o-dCs #olo (()3*), which E.P. Comentale and S. Watt · Of Migrants and Men: Networks and Nations in the Millennial Bond Text 3 makes no attempt to ventriloHuise 'leming or adapt his st-le, cannot escape this histor- 'leming lives in these "ages; he desires our attention, as 1oland 2arthesC "la-ful deplo-ment of the fetish in The Pleasure of the Text suggests (3456, (5), and we desire his “vocabular-#, “readabilit-#, and “references# 'or over half a centur-, these have constituted a readerl- home, a comfortable habitus we want to occu"-, if onl- for a little while. Pot sur"risingl-, the most important of these tro"es and characters is 2ond himself 2oth 'aulks and Morowitz leave nothing to chance in this regard, Huickl- linking their "rotagonists with 'leming’s. .e'il Ma Care takes "lace eighteen months after 2ond defeats Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (34A6)0 and Trigger Mortis includes cameo ap"earances b- Ouss- Ralore two weeks after 2ond meets her in Gold1nger (3464) Morowitz even recalls the earlier textCs most sensational scene b- having Ouss- "ainted in gold for ))5 to rescue, a better fate than was meted to 9ill Masterson 2oth novelsC heimat of references include familiar turns of "hrase like “2ond 9ames 2ond#, such hallowed vices as vodka Martinis and cigarettes from @orlandCs, and a m-riad of other lexical and narrat$ ive features, including the "eculiar histories of 2ondCs "rinci"al nemeses in both the